Courtly chamber music in the Italian style from the birthplace of Bach, including several world-premiere recordings.

Most prolific yet perennially underappreciated of composers, Telemann became Capellmeister of the court chapel in Eisenach, birthplace of J.S. Bach, in 1709. Bach had by then taken up a post in Weimar, but the two men became friends, and Telemann dedicated to him a Concerto in D major (TWV 51:D6), of which the slow movement opens with a festive BACH motif, in a transposed version. This is one of three first recordings on the album.

The other concertos and sonatas in this recording were also composed during Telemann’s time in Eisenach. A pair of quartets, in D minor (TWV 43:d2) and G major (TWV 43:G12), follow the same principle in the treatment of the parts, whereby in the slow opening movements the instruments take turns – in TWV 43:d2 the viola, in TWV 43:G12 the flute – and the other parts accompany. The Sonatas IV in C major (TWV 43:C1) and F major (TWV 43:F1) were originally composed for two violins, viola and basso continuo, later adapted by a Parisian publisher to include an upper part for a wind instrument.

Further value to any Baroque-music enthusiast is added by the inclusion of two sonatas and a concertino written by Johann Melchior Molter, who is now known almost exclusively through the compositions he wrote for his own instrument, the trumpet. By contrast, these works present a less extrovert side to the composer, who belonged to the generation after Telemann (though in fact died two years before him, in 1765) and worked in Eisenach after the elder composer’s departure. The two quartets date from a later period of Molter’s career, when he was based in Karlsruhe: fully mature, richly worked chamber sonatas in a highly ornamented Italian idiom. The cheerful, vivacious Concertino is essentially a duet for violin and harpsichord.

With this album, the Leipzig-based Camerata Bachiensis make their debut on Brilliant Classics. Founded in 2012, they are now ensemble in residence at the city’s Bach Museum, and they make frequent appearances at the major early-music festivals in central Europe.